Right. So this morning I had a computer briefing, basically got to register so I can use the computers in the Electronic Engineering department. Very boring but had to be done.

Met my tutor at 12, we were put into about a dozen groups and im in group Q. I still can’t read my timetable, but I get an explanation as to how to do that in the morning at my very long intorductory lecture.

The picutes from the last post are of freshers fayre which was in a huge tent (pic 1) in the main field on campus (background in pic 3). As you can see, it was very busy in the tent, mainly because it was raining outside when it started.

In the second picture you can see one of my room-mates, Mariana, in a giant pants.

Third picture is of my three female house-mates, left to right: Lauren, Sophie, Mariana

Final picture is of one of the events they had outside, those two guys were really going for it!

Since my last post i’ve been out to Wates House, which is the same place I went to for the comedy night yesterday. Its really good place. It is small, but its also a bit of the beaten track and very close to my halls, so very handy.

The picture in this post is of the band playing at Wates House tonight.

Tomorrow is going to be a busy day, plenty to do and even more to think about.

The rest of the day went smoothly. The job shop was busy, but I’ll find out on friday if I’ve got a job at the union.

The meet and greet was fun, met some new people and hung out with Josh & Nnaoma, who are both doing Media Engineering as well.

After the meet, which went on until 6:45pm, I came back to base to relax. The evening was spent finishing the unpacking (now I just have to put eveything somewhere) and talking with the girls on my floor.

The people on my floor:

Adam, studying Business Management

Chris, studying Business Management

Mariana, Portuguese, studying Psychology

Sophie, studying Dance

Lauren, studying English

So a good mix of people. They are all very friendly and we’re getting on very well so far.

Last night, the boys went out to the SU (called Rubix) and the rest of us had a quiet night in.

Just to let you all know that I feel a lot better now, still have the odd moment, but on the whole feeling more like myself.

The morning’s activities were exciting. I had an introductory talk to welcome the Electronic Engineers into the Faculty. They said the usual stuff about how university was about managing work and leisure, and a few things about how the course works. Then had a wonder around before having a few more talks about Mentoring, the Library and the Students Union. All very valuable.

I’m having trouble with the Internet at the moment, apparently the switch that serves my court is not working properly, so I can access some websites, but not others. Skype works, but I can’t got onto the St Mary’s Website or Google. I can get on my blog, however. Hopefully everything will be up and running in the next few hours.

As for the maths test, It was fairly straight forward. It was done on computers, so you get your score immediately. I’ve got 84% (21 out of 25) which will hopefully be enough to get me on the higher maths lectures. I only want to do this because the lower maths group have more lectures, and a few quite early in the morning. I find out which group i’m in on wednesday, so I will update you then as to how my timetable looks.

For the rest of the day i’m going to a Job Shop at 4pm and then another meet & greet at 5pm. After that I have to do some shopping and maybe have a look around town.

Got up at 8:45am, after getting myself organised and packing a few last things (coat) I went to church.Church was great! The sermon was about learning to let go and go for something, very approapriate. There was also a notice for me and I got given two st mary’s mugs.After church, and saying my goodbyes, we returned home to pack the car. After much thought and careful planning, the car was full and ready to go.At 2pm we arrived at Uni. By this point I was feeling a bit sick, but we still managed to unload the car into a big tent. We then walked to reception and I got my keys, ect.Then we moved all my things (21 boxes in total) into my new home. Met a few of my new room-mates (more on those another time) and got unpacking. The unpacking process was very emotional for me, it was the moment when everything dawned on me and I was very overwhelmed for about 20 minutes. Eventually, we got the room into a liveable state with most things unpacked. Goodbyes. Now this was alot more difficult than I thought is was going to be. I won’t go into specifics because I think you can all figure out what that means.Parents finally left me outside my faculty building where I went to meet people on my course. Still feeling uneasy. I met two other people and we hung out for about an hour talking. I started to feel a bit better. We then went for a walk around, to the shop on campus and then the kitchen of one of my new friends. We stayed there, talking for another hour. Finally went back to my room about 6:30 and properly met with my room-mates.At 7:15 we had a briefing about living in halls, fire safety and the Student’s Union. When that finished at about 8pm we went back to our room.By this point I felt comfortable nough to force-feed myself a pot noodle. At 9:45pm I went out, with a load of girls in my house and another house nearby, to Rubix, the Student’s Union nightclub. Because I still wasn’t feeling 100% I didn’t hae anything to drink. It was a good night talking and dancing.Getting back to my room about 1am and went straight to bed. The nights sleep was awful, I kept waking up and feeling queasy.Got up this morning at 8am, force-fed myself some cereal and orange juice. I now have a full day planned, staring with a welcome talk at 9:30am. Maths test this afternoon that I need to be awake for and then another meet and greet in the evening.Hope I survive. I am really enjoying myself, but my stomach seems pretty intent on spoiling the party. If I was a betting man I would say is was home-sickness, but whatever it is, it better not outstay its welcome.A short video of yesterday’s events to follow soon.

Posts navigation

Another full marathon week of training, but this time the long run was in Bath! I ran through the longest cycling tunnel in Britain – the Combe Down Tunnel – a 1 mile long tunnel on the now-closed Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway line.

Good news from the physio! Apparently the problems with my knee have been caused by a tight IT band on my left leg. There’s no damage to my knee, and with a bit of stretching to that area it should be fine!

So with that good news I set about a full week of marathon training, including a 10km lunch run, an interval session, and my longest run so far: a 33km jaunt along the canal.

I also finally get serious about nutrition for my long run. Turns out you can’t just run a marathon without eating anything during the race, so I need to think about how I’m going to get about 400-500 calories during the race and practice that in my long runs from now on.